BLDS - British Library of Development Studies

Main BLDS collection and its arrangement

The extensive holdings have been built up since 1966 and constitute Europe's most comprehensive research collection on development issues, providing an unparalleled range and depth of coverage.

The Collection

We hold

• over 1000 journal titles
• over 10,000 magazine, newspaper, annual report and newsletter titles
• over 80,000 monographs, including individual research reports, working papers and books

E-library gives full-text online access to some of these journals and series.

Articles indexing 150 of the journals are selectively indexed.

Sources of material include:

• Developing country governments - particularly strong in statistics, development plans
• Donor country governments - particularly strong in aid policies, development projects
• International organizations, such as the World Bank, UN system, IMF, ILO, IIED
• Regional organizations, such as African Development Bank, Asian Productivity Organization
• Non-governmental organizations, based in all continents
• Research institutions, based in all continents
• Commercial publishers
  

Electronic information, available on CD-ROM or through online services, includes:

• Statistical databases
• Bibliographic databases
• Full text sources
• Directories
• E-journals

(access via the E-library)

Subjects include:

Economics, Education, Environment, Gender, Health, Politics, Rural development, Social development, and Trade

The collection is kept up to date to reflect current concerns, for example:
Civil society, Globalization, Governance, Human rights, Livelihoods, Participation, Social capital and Sustainablity.

Search for materials in the collection

• Detailed subject cataloguing
• 150,000 plus records, including over 40,000 journal articles (list of journals indexed)
• Advanced or simple searching
• Pre-designed searches prepared by librarians (Subject guides and Country profiles)
• Relevant and comprehensive search results
• Material received pre-1987 can be searched via our card catalogues

Arrangement of the collection

This is by type of material, rather than by subject classification, and comprises the following major collections:

First Floor

Quick Reference
The latest statistical publications, factbooks and directories, on all major regions and subject areas.

Ground Floor

Serials
Journals, magazines, research reports, working papers etc, from a range of producers including research centres, universities, NGOs and commercial publishers.

Monographs
One-off publications, which do not fit into any of the other categories. This section includes many of our commercial publications, as well as material from NGOs and research organizations.

Officials
Post 1993 material from a number of International Organizations, including World Bank, and UK, South African and Indian Governmental publications.

Reserve
Heavily used books, basic development texts, reading list materials, and all IDS publications.

Basement

(All basement collections are closed access; please make requests as least one day in advance if possible).

Basement GP (Government Publications)
Material from official government sources - includes serials and monographs.

Basement IO (International Organizations)
Material produced by international organizations - includes series and monographs.

Basement RF (Old Reference collection)
Selection of older reference materials

Suggest a book for purchase

The library welcomes your suggestions for book purchases.

Either fill in a green purchase suggestion card, available from the Issue desk or email library enquiries providing as much detail as you have about the publication. We will inform you of the outcome of any suggestion and will let you know when an item you have requested becomes available for you to borrow.